Author's Note
As this chapter is a shorter one, I will post the next chapter as well :)
Hope you will enjoy it!
Erdi
Ric's POV
One year later
"This has to be the most boring assignment we have gotten since joining the army" Lester complains.
"Pull up your big girl panties. At least this time we will have proper beds to sleep in. And may I tell you the benefits of being able to take a shower? So we don't have to suffer through your smelly ass not being clean" Bobby reminds him.
"Fuck off" Les flips him off and disappears in the bathroom, making the rest of us laugh.
"Pay up" I motion to Tank. Bobby looks at me funny, so I add "We had a bet, who of the two of you would complain first about this mission."
"Fucking lost a 100 bucks to this asshole" Tank stops cleaning his gun to hand me the money.
"And you thought it would be me?" Bobby raises his eyebrow. "Fuck you. I take this any day over a godforsaken sandbox."
"I hear ya" I nod in agreement. Being assigned to scope out loopholes in the security for the United Nations Summit in Russia is not the worst assignment that we ever had. Why they got Army Rangers to do it, I have no idea, but we get a nice Hotel room with the assignment, so they won't find me complaining.
"I am starving" My cousin announces, once he re-emerges out of the bathroom with his Mohawk now styled.
"Doc, you really need to find a way to make his stomach smaller...I am no longer sharing my rations with him! He is a beast...My body needs all the fuel it can get to maintain this" Tank points at his massive frame.
"Let's go, before I decide to shoot you bozos and claim all the rations for myself instead." Lester announces, which has Bobby and Tank raising their arms in defeat.
"Let me get my stuff" I announce, shaking my head at the scenes before me and step out of Lester's room, without looking and run into someone.
"Watch yourself!" A way to familiar voice accuses me, while something really cold trickles down my leg.
"I should have been more aware of my surroundings, Babe" I grin and turn to face the only person that I have ever loved besides my family, and possibly ever will, while trying to shake the icy water of my pants.
"We really have to stop running into each other like this" She grins and draws me into a hug.
"No, we don't" I tell her, subtly reminding her of what I told her a year ago in Cuba.
"What are the chances that we are in the same place at the same time once again?" Steph grins at me, over the dinner table. She is wearing jeans, a tank top and her curly hair is pulled into ponytail. She looks like she has lost weight as well, which makes me want to order her at least three burgers, a milkshake and rocky road ice cream to make her put the weight right back on.
"Slim to none, but yet I am happy we did" I tell her.
"So are we" Lester grins, reminding me that we are not alone. Since our assignment only officially begins tomorrow, we have time to catch up with Steph. I shoot my cousin a glare, but he only shrugs his shoulders. Causing Tank to slap him across the head Gibbs Style.
Steph laughs and her blue eyes light up. God how much missed this, how much I missed her. There have been other women, but I used them to find release and satisfy a need. No one will ever hold a candle to Steph and what we had.
Call me a sap, but I really hope that this is meant to be. That thought is what keeps me going through every mission. The hope to see her again. Someday.
